Roger Michell stiffens his upper lip from his Love, Actually and Notting Hill fare to tackle a costume drama with My Cousin Rachel. Oddly enough, this film can stake a serendipitous claim as the second Michell-directed film about “kissing cousins” after Hyde Park on the Hudson. Unfortunately, more than a little uncomfortable laughter of preposterousness pokes out of this film while trying to portray itself as flowing romantic drama. That’s not going to sweep anyone.

2 STARS, 2017, Foreign Film, Independent Film, MOVIE REVIEWDon ShanahanJune 8, 2017Landmark Century Centre Cinema2017, 2017 Summer Movies, independent films, independent film, foreign films, foreign film, Foreign films, female leads, strong female character, My Cousin Rachel, Sam Clafin, Rachel Weisz, Roger Michell, Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca, The Birds, Rael Jones, Hugh Grant, Me Before You, Hyde Park on the Hudson, Notting Hill, 1952, Olivia de Havilland, Richard Burton, Holliday Grainger, Pierfrancisco Favino, World War Z, The Hunger Games, keep it in the family, film review, movie review, film commentary, movie commentary, life lessons, life lessons from movies, life lessons from film, life lessons from films, Don Shanahan, Donald Shanahan, movie melodramas, melodramas, mystery, costume drama, Chicago Independent Film Critics CircleComment

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2017: The female acting awards

n this fifth post, we look at the races for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Stick with me and I will win you your Oscar pool!

2017, Column, Editorial, SPECIALDon ShanahanFebruary 22, 20172017, 2017 Academy Awards, 2017 Oscar Predictions, 2017 Oscars, Oscar talks, Oscar snubs, Oscar race, Oscar Predictions, Oscars, 89th Oscars, 89th Academy Awards, Oscar nominee, Oscar nominations, Oscar contenders, Oscar winners, Oscar surprises, Oscar hopefuls, Oscar bait, Oscar, Academy Awards, Academy Award, Academy Award winner, Academy Award nominations, Academy Award nominee, Academy Award nominees, Awards Talk, Awards bait, Awards, Awards Tracker, Awards seasons, Award Prediction, Awards Predictions, Female acting awards, Best Actress in a Supporting Role, Best Actress, Best Actress in a Leading Role, female leads, female protagonists, strong female protagonists, strong female character, Donald Shanahan, Don Shanahan, Every Movie Has a LessonComment

OSCAR PREDICTIONS 2016: The female acting awards

Through several editorial features, here is my analysis to formulate my official Academy Award predictions. In this fifth post, we look at the races for Best Actress and Best Supporting Actress. Stick with me and I will win you your Oscar pool!

COLUMN: New Year's Resolutions for the Movie Industry in 2016

As I say every year, plenty of regular everyday people make New Year's Resolutions, but I think bigger entities, namely movie makers and movie moguls, need to make them too. Over the life of this website, this is my absolute favorite editorial to write every year. I have fun taking the movie industry to task for things they need to change. I'm sarcastic, but I'm not the guy to take it to the false internet courage level of some Twitter troll. This will be as forward as I get all year.